PINKY and REX and the mean old witch By James Howe

Pinky, Rex and Amanda were playing monkey in the middle one day when their ball went into their neighbor’s yard. Pinky and Rex’s next door neighbor was an older lady who did not like children playing in her yard. Accordingly, the older lady yelled at them to get out of her yard. These children did not like being yelled at so they gave the older lady a nickname, “the mean old witch”. Since the group of children felt hurt by the old ladies mean gesture they decide to do a reciprocal mean act. Pinky was going to put goopey goo in his neighbor’s mail box but he looked into her window and noticed she was sad and looked lonely. Consequently, Pinky could not follow through with the mean act and had a talk with his dad. While talking to his dad, Pinky found out that the older lady’s husband had died. Pinky’s dad explained that maybe she forgot how to love. Pinky then decided to give his neighbor homemade cookies and that started the beginning of a great relationship between him and his neighbor. Although I have never had mean neighbors, this book sends a great message. This book sends the message that everything is not as it seems. Everyone has different life experiences that shape their personal identity. An important aspect that educators need to teach children is to dig below the surface value when learning about concepts. Children should read, analysis, and synthesis the material they read and learn.